The present invention relates generally to information services, and more particularly, to a computer-controlled process for automatically extracting information from information sources for delivery over a communications medium, using a simplified process of adding new information services for selection by information service clients.
The information age has arrived, with nearly limitless amounts of information being stored digitally. In particualr, the Internet has become a tremendous information resource, allowing every user the ability to obtain, at little or no cost, current information on a whole host of subjects. The Internet has evolved into a relatively standard method of presentation of text information, utilizing Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) or Extensible Markup Language (XML) to display the text. This standardization has allowed for the explosive growth of the Internet around the world, with new information resources being added continuously. Proprietary data bases, information sources and corporate databases have added to the information explosion.
Cellular telephone technology has greatly advanced, and the consequent cost for ownership and usage of cellular telephones has declined. The delivery of a voice telephone call to a subscriber has however become somewhat of a commodity, with the resultant decrease in profitability for the cellular telephone operator companies. As cellular technology has continued to advance, many cellular phones have been equipped with the ability to send and receive short text messages, popularly known as Short Message Services (SMS). Other technologies for delivering information including but not limited to the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) have also been developed. This ability enables the cellular operator to distinguish itself by the message services offered, with the additional benefit of added revenue for the delivery of these text services. Many cellular telephony vendors offer a broad range of short message services, including message delivery and scheduled and on-demand information deliveryxe2x80x94such as stock quotes and weather forecasts. Using cellular telephones many users can dial up a service center, and by choosing the appropriate option, have a current stock quote displayed on their telephone display.
While there is a current focus on cellular technology, the need for information delivery is by no means restricted to cellular telephone customers. Information is currently delivered by alpha numeric pagers, e-mail, voice mail etc.
These advanced information services have typically been supplied by content providers, with such well known names as Reuters, and CNN. However, these content providers have historically each delivered their information in their own proprietary format, which must then be converted to the cellular operators format for delivery to the SMS or other delivery system. This is an expensive and time consuming task, requiring careful coordination and programming between the content provider and cellular telephony vendors technicians and programmers. Adding new services becomes quite burdensome and technically daunting.
Recently GSM Information Network B.V. of the Netherlands, WWW.GIN.NL, have developed a system that allows a cellular phone customer to define information to be delivered to them. This is typically accomplished by accessing the GIN web site over the Internet, and first providing the customer""s cellular telephone number and a password. Once the system has been accessed, the customer may define a specific web page from the Internet, which is to be accessed. A search string may also be defined, as well as delivery options, such as scheduled delivery or delivery on request.
When delivery is to occur, the GIN system will access the web page over the Internet, and using the pre-defined search string, the desired content is found and sent to the customer""s cellular telephone via the operator""s SMS system. A maximum of 150 characters may be sent, or until a line break is found. This system gives the cellular customer the ability to access a pre-defined web location, however the exact location and an appropriate search string must be defined by the customer. The system does not give the cellular operator a simple tool to define new services that may be accessed by all customers. It does also not solve the problem of the giving the cellular operator access to Internet-supplied information for delivery to those customers, and is limited to Internet based information sources.
Thus, existing information retrieval systems are not user-friendly, and extracting specific web page elements requires knowledge of Internet protocols and web page formats. Extracting information from proprietary sources such as corporate databases, or information networks such as Reuters requires detailed protocol knowledge.
Therefore it would be desirable to provide an apparatus and method to define in a simple and user-friendly manner new information services which may be accessed for delivery over a communication medium, for delivery to a user such as by a display on a cellular telephone, with the information for these services being supplied from a wide range of sources including from standard Internet web pages, corporate Intranets, corporate databases, text files and external proprietary information sources such as Reuters.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to simplify the addition of new information services, and to provide a user-friendly means for easily developing new information services whose content will be derived by accessing pre-defined web pages or other sources of information such as corporate databases, text files, or external proprietary sources.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for defining at least one new information service for delivery to at least one customer via a communication medium, said method comprising:
accessing a source of information;
parsing said information source into at least one extractable element;
creating an extraction template;
selecting said at least one extractable element to be added to said extraction template, and
adding said extraction template to a list of deliverable information services.
In a preferred embodiment, the inventive method enables an operator of cellular information services to easily define new information services that may be delivered to customers. Information for these services is extracted from standard web pages found on the Internet and other sources of information such as databases, intranet pages, text files and external proprietary information sources. The cellular operator uses a parsing tool to locate extractable elements from the desired source of information, and the operator attaches labels to desired extractable elements. The information service is then labeled and added to the list of available information services, with the labels and the address of the information source being used to allow the cellular operator to retrieve and deliver the information.
The present invention is applicable to other transmission technologies, delivery protocols, receiving devices, interconnection technologies, and information sources. In accordance with the inventive method, a user can simply and easily define and extract information elements from a data source to be sent to information service clients.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following drawings and description.